Feels like a sharp intake of breath is needed before contemplating what 2025 might bring…

I didn’t publish so much in 2024, for various reasons, but was pleased to have my story ‘To Take the Water Down and Go To Sleep’ included in the anthology Shadows on the Water.

I fulfilled an ambition to have work published in one of my favourite magazines, Hellebore, with my article ‘Rewriting the Landscape’ appearing in The Storytelling Issue #12.

My Goodreads profile makes it look like I hardly read anything in 2024, but I read/annotated/fed back on dozens of short stories, screenplays and full novel manuscripts as part of my day job. Always a pleasure to read emerging voices in various genres and styles! There was, and continues to be, much uncertainty in academia with diminished budgets and the threat of job cuts across the sector. Solidarity with and sympathy for all those affected, and I hope things improve. (No pressure on our new Labour-lite government of course…!)

The film funding landscape was also difficult to navigate in 2024, though I’m cautiously optimistic for better days ahead with the promise of better tax breaks for indie movie production. Sadly, nothing came of the shopping agreement for my feature film screenplay ‘Knock Three Times’ and rights have reverted to me so it’s back to the anvil with that project. In better news, my folk horror film ‘The Stay’ continued its film festival run, picking up its 31st award honour. I won’t curse myself by saying anything about future productions, maybe I’d better just say ‘watch this space’…

2024 was also the year that I completely failed to see The Cure play live, but tickets for their BBC Radio & Troxy shows turned out to be rarer than politicians with good intentions. Here’s hoping for some dates in 2025 so I can overcompensate! The long awaited Songs of a Lost World album exceeded all expectations — an instant classic. I did get out & see some fantastic shows in 2024, including Ride, Hawkwind, and Front 242’s final(?) UK gig.

Speaking of final(?) gigs… In 2024 I started but didn’t quite finish my 8th novel. Not making any New Year’s resolutions here but will aim to pick that up again in 2025 (in addition to finding a new potential agent/publisher for the book).

Last but by no means least, I had the most fun chatting all things vampiric & gothic horror with Blackletter Games’ Kris Rees and Happy Goat Horror’s Kayleigh Dobbs — and I was super honoured to see my novel Hearthstone Cottage on Kayleigh’s Top 10 Ghostly Horror Books list!

Fangs for reading & here’s wishing you a happy, healthy, or just plain tolerable 2025.

x Frazer